Discussion in religious education: developing dialogic for community cohesion and/or spiritual development

Abstract

In the UK and across Europe, rising concern about religion has impacted on religious education (RE), with a new emphasis being placed on dialogue for developing community cohesion. In this article it is suggested that the new emphasis on dialogue for community cohesion in RE also presents an opportunity to improve dialogic pedagogy for spiritual education. The article reports the author’s observations of classroom discussion in UK classrooms, and examines constraints on developing dialogic pedagogy, whether for community cohesion or for spiritual development. Considerable research is being carried out into developing dialogic pedagogy for community cohesion and, while the author argues that further research and curriculum development will be needed to transform classroom discussion into dialogic, this research should also be applied to developing transformative spiritual education.

Keywords:

• dialogic
• spirituality
• community cohesion
• religious education

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank the teachers and students who helped with the study, and the Keswick Hall Trustees for their financial support for this work and their continued support for my research. I am most grateful for this help and support.

Notes

1. The age of the secondary school pupils was therefore approximately, 12, 14, 15 and 16. The children in all the schools were predominantly white British. One Year 11 group was all female and the other classes were all mixed gender; one teacher was male and four teachers were female.

2. The examinations taken by all young people in England and Wales, usually at age 16.